


Aftermath

by seekergeek



Series: Companion 'verse [24]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, M/M, Pre-Slash, Valdemar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-25
Updated: 2012-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-22 09:04:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/608116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekergeek/pseuds/seekergeek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John's eyes roved briefly, taking in their surroundings. It was a healery, one unfamiliar to John. "Where are we?" he managed to rasp out this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftermath

John blinked his eyes open, hurting and a bit confused as to why he was. "Wha," he croaked and promptly began coughing. This was a stupid thing to do because it caused the hurt to morph into a lancing agony in his chest that he curled up around, trying to lessen the agony. At least the pain reminded him that he'd had a dagger thrown at his chest recently. 

Strong arms lifted him up and cup of water was held to his lips. John swallowed eagerly, glad for the liquid which calmed his coughing and relieved an enormous thirst he didn't know he had until he'd started drinking. He made a protesting noise when it was taken away from him. 

"Oh, quit whining, you'll get some more soon enough," Rodney said, easing John back down. He smelled odd, of smoke and burnt meat.

John's eyes roved briefly, taking in their surroundings. It was a healery, one unfamiliar to John. "Where are we?" he managed to rasp out this time. 

"We're at Healer Biro's place somewhere in the middle of a gods forsaken forest," Rodney replied. "And don't ask me why there's a healer in the middle of nowhere instead of a village, because I haven't the slightest idea why."

"I'm in the middle of the forest instead of a village because this is where my job is," a plain woman with blond hair pulled into a ponytail said crisply, coming up to the side of John's bed. "I spend most of my time compounding medicines from the herbs and barks that I collect from said forest and sending them to Haven to cure the likes of you all." She shrugged. "The villages in the area all know where I am if they need me."

"Why are we here?" John then asked. His father's castle had always had a healer on staff. 

Rodney's face set. "We're here because I didn't trust there to not be another assassin lurking in a corner of the quarters of your family's healer. It was an ambush, John. They tried to take out Atlantis too."

Fear shot through John. _Atlantis?_

 _I am here and safe, as is my son,_ she replied soothingly. _The healer has seen to my wounds and she has assured me that all will heal well. They were minor in comparison to yours. As usual, the assassins assumed that Companions were no more than particularly well trained white horses._

And had paid the price, John inferred from her tone. _What about Dave?_

 _Your brother is safe as well,_ she assured him. _He was never the target. It was you that they were after. I understand from Haikon that Cameron found him to be very upset that his household had been infiltrated and that you were injured as a result._

John sighed in relief upon hearing that his brother was safe. His relationship with his brother was rocky at best, but he had never wished any harm to come to him. 

_And before you ask, everyone else is safe as well,_ she said, interrupting his next thought. _Rodney is there with you, obviously, the Guards are manning the defense of your family's castle, while Cameron is checking all of your brother's people via Truth Spell to root out any further mischief makers. Vala is busy questioning a suspect that Rodney neutralized and Ronon is in the outer room guarding you. Now, stop worrying and let the nice woman finish healing your injury!_ she ended a little tartly. 

John looked up a little guiltily at Healer Biro. The corner of her mouth quirked up in amusement. "Now that you've checked in with your Companion, I'd like to do some more healing on your injury if I could, please. Getting rid of the poison in your system was so draining that I wasn't able to completely finish healing the knife wound when you were first brought in." She gestured to the blanket covering him. "May I?"

"Uh, sure," John replied as Rodney snorted in the background. Bitter experience over the years had shown him that it was best to just go along with whatever it was the healers wanted. They had a way of getting back at you otherwise if you didn't. A happy healer was one that didn't poke you in painful places and then dose you up with the really nasty tonics in the name of disease prevention.

Biro sat down on the edge of his bed, expertly peeled the blanket away from his torso and carefully removed the bandage on his chest. She then gently prodded around the red and extremely tender wound for a moment before turning to Rodney and saying, "If I could have your assistance again, Herald-trainee?"

Rodney promptly reached out a hand to her. She took hold of it with one of her own, then laid her free hand softly onto John's wound and closed her eyes. John soon felt a strong sensation of warmth and tingling in the area and the pain decreased slowly but steadily until finally there was just a vague ache. 

Biro opened her eyes as she removed her hand from his chest, visibly tired from the healing she had just performed on John. He looked down at where the wound had been and saw a mostly healed scar. "Thanks," he said, feeling a little weary from the process himself. 

"You're welcome," Biro replied with a smile that, though tired, nonetheless made her face pretty. "If you'll continue to humor me, I'd like to get some meat and broth into you. You lost a quantity of blood and your body needs the nourishment to be able to replace what was lost. Think you can stand to eat a bit of beef soup?"

"Sure," John agreed, still not being stupid about following healer's orders. 

Biro smiled again at his response, got up, and headed out of the room, presumably to get the prescribed soup.

Rodney snorted disdainfully from the chair beside John's bed. "I cannot believe how much of a skirt-chaser you are. Here you are, half-dead from an assassination attempt and you're lying there charming the healer with your stupid flirtatious ways!"

John blinked at him. What on earth was Rodney talking about? "What?"

"Don't give me that innocent look!" Rodney sneered, waving his finger in John's face. "If you'd just crooked your finger, she'd have been all over you like white on a Companion! You're shameless, you know that? And to think I didn't know this about you! You had me thinking you were some kind of hermit or something!"

"But I kind of am," John protested. He was. He taught class, went to and was miserable at Court, and then went back to the safety of his room where he played chess with Rodney and then went to bed – alone. "Gods, Rodney, I'm not interested in her, honest!" 

Rodney gave a disbelieving sniff and crossed his arms as Biro came back bearing a tray. She set it to the side and handed John a shirt. "Thought you might want to put this on. I don't want you getting chilled while you sit up and eat."

John sat up, took it from her and slipped it on before gingerly scooting back so that his back was braced against the pillows and backboard of the bed. Biro smiled at him again and set the tray on his lap. The aroma of the beef soup hit John's nose and suddenly he felt ravenous. He picked up the spoon and started in on the soup. It was a little salty, full of minced meat and the best thing that John had ever tasted. 

Biro nodded in satisfaction at the enthusiasm with which he downed the soup. "Good. If you want any more after you're finished with that, just let me know. You need to rebuild the blood that you have lost. I'm pleased that you've got a good appetite. Means that you're healing up nicely from your little dance with danger."

Rodney's eyes bugged out unattractively at Biro's comment and he sucked in a breath to start what John was sure was a vehement rant about passing off John's near death so casually, so John quickly reached out and put a hand on Rodney's knee and squeezed hard. 

It seemed to work, because Rodney turned his attention to John instead. What he wasn't prepared for was the fear and worry in Rodney's eyes. John squeezed his knee again more gently and he said softly, "Hey. I'm okay now. You don't have to worry anymore."

"You nearly died," Rodney croaked. "You nearly died _in my arms._ I Fetched us to the stables to get you away from assassins and then _killed_ a man, and then I had to Fetch the both of us _again_ to a healery farther away than I'm supposed to be able to go without _killing us both,_ and _then_ I had to go out and kill _four more men_ and seriously wound another because if they found you they were going to try to kill you _again_ before you'd even been completely healed!"

"I'm sorry I scared you," John replied, seeing the frank terror in Rodney's face at the thought of John dying on him. "And I'm sorry you had to kill all those people to keep me safe."

Rodney swallowed heavily at that and looked away. "I knew the job was dangerous when Cadman Chose me."

"Doesn't mean that you're ready for it yet, though." John squeezed Rodney's knee again and let go. He looked back to the healer, but she had apparently slipped out of the room when he'd started talking to Rodney. He'd have to thank her for that later. "How _did_ you manage to Fetch us so far?" he asked curiously.

"All of the Companions gave me a 'boost'," Rodney replied, making air quotes with his hands. "Still gave me a gods-awful headache though." A look of desperation came into Rodney's eyes and he added, his voice hard, "Don't you _ever_ try to die on me again, John. You hear me? Because I won't have anyone looking me up if I'm hiding in a barn come Sovvan night. You're one of the few friends I have and I… I…," he faltered to a stop.

John reached out and squeezed Rodney's knee again, touched by the raw emotion Rodney had just poured out. "Yeah, I hear you buddy. I couldn't do without you either."

Rodney laid a hand on top of his and smiled back uncertainly. Quiet drifted onto them both and John found himself staring into Rodney's eyes, a feeling of homecoming settling over him. John found himself smiling back at Rodney and Rodney's smile turned a little shy in return. 

"You two done arguing yet? Healer says you need to finish that soup before you're allowed to leave," Ronon's voice boomed into the silence of the room. 

The two of them jumped at the sound. Rodney flushed a deep crimson and looked down at the floor. John turned and gave Ronon a furious glare, mad at him for, well he wasn't quite sure what for. "We weren't arguing!"

Ronon looked at both of them closely for a moment. "Huh," he grunted cryptically, "Sorry I interrupted," and retreated back into the front room.

John went back to eating his soup, fuming because the silence between him and Rodney had turned awkward and he didn't know what to do to fix it. He stolidly made his way through his soup and was just about finished when Rodney quit fidgeting and spoke up. 

"Come with me to Jeannie's for Midwinter."

John flicked his eyes up to look at Rodney over the rim of the bowl. "What?"

Rodney crossed his arms and tilted his chin up. "You heard me. We're halfway there already and it will help give us the slip to any other people searching for you. I talked to Ronon about it and he agrees. Besides that, there's no way I'm letting you spend it at your brother's, not that I think you'd want to spent it there anyways, and I'll be damned if I let you go back to Haven and suffer through Court for the entire holiday." 

"But she's your family! It would be an intrusion," John protested, setting down the bowl. "And I'm saddled with an entire retinue! Where would everyone stay?"

"She's always complaining to me that I don't have any friends," Rodney replied. "Bringing one home for Midwinter may actually make her shut up about it. And bringing you along with an entire retinue might finally make her give it a rest about me never coming to visit."

"So you want me to invade your sister's house in revenge for her being aggravating," John commented flatly, crossing his arms. 

Rodney scowled. "No, I want my friend who I _just nearly lost_ to come celebrate the holiday with me and my dysfunctional family. The fact that he just happens to come with a lot of royally appointed hangers-on which might potentially annoy the heck out of my sister is just a convenient plus."

There was no denying that Rodney's offer was honest and John was touched by it, but… "I don't think Elizabeth would approve of me haring off with her Guards and Heralds on a whim, Rodney," John replied honestly. 

"Well, we'll just have to check and see, won't we?" Rodney challenged, and closed his eyes in obvious concentration. 

John gaped in astonishment. _Atlantis, is Rodney actually trying to badger Elizabeth long-distance into letting him take me to visit his family?_

_Apparently he is,_ Atlantis commented dryly. _I recommend that you prepare to give in to the inevitable. Cadman says that he is a force of nature once he gets an idea in his head._

John sighed and rubbed his face with both hands. He hoped that Elizabeth was amused rather than ticked off by the presumption for Rodney's sake. She was not a person that you wanted to cross. 

Rodney's eyes fluttered open and he looked scarily satisfied. "Her Majesty requests that the farm boy Herald and her Guards go hunting for any other parties hunting for you after they're finished at your brother's, please and thank you, but you, Vala, and Ronon have all been ordered to go visit my sister with me. She also ordered you to enjoy your time away - whether you want to or not."

"Ordered, huh?" John replied skeptically, his eyebrow raised. Rodney smirked back at him.

 _Evidently, yes,_ Atlantis said, amused. _Cadman just confirmed. It seems that he was very, er, persuasive._

John eyed Rodney suspiciously and thought at him, _Just what exactly did you say to Elizabeth?_

 _That you'd been knifed, poisoned and nearly hunted down by a bunch of assassins, but that thanks to me you were on the mend. And that in order for you to heal in peace you needed a gods-damned break from Court, your family and politics, and if you didn't get it, I was going to kidnap you and take you anyways, so she might as well save herself the time and aggravation and agree with me,_ Rodney replied smugly. _I'm happy to inform you that the queen is a very intelligent person and saw the wisdom of my idea._

"Alright then, since I've been ordered, I guess we'll go to your sister's," John said sarcastically, a little mad at Rodney for going over his head. "But you're going to be the one to deal with your sister's meltdown when Vala steals the silverware and Ronon eats her out of house and home, buddy."

Rodney waved a dismissive hand and scoffed, "My sister is quite capable of dealing with them herself. You've met her, she's a harpy!" He then broke from his offensive stance and looked pleadingly at John. "Please, John. Come with me so you can heal and mourn properly where someone isn't out to get you all the damn time."

John's anger crumbled abruptly. "Geez," he said feelingly, running a hand over his face, suddenly exhausted. "Okay, yeah. We'll go to your sister's."

"Thank you," Rodney replied, a thin, wavering smile on his face. He then surprised the hells out of John by leaning forward and pulling him into a tight hug. "I'll make sure to get you good and drunk when we get there. I promised you that after the funeral and I swear that I'll deliver," Rodney murmured into his ear. "I'm sorry about your father."

A swelling sensation in John's chest made him swallow hard. "Thanks, buddy," he rasped out, patting Rodney on the back, ignoring the pull on his scar. Comfort washed over him and John didn't question it, just welcomed finally, finally feeling at home with someone other than Atlantis for the first time in his life.


End file.
